Apple by Nikki McClure

Washington State has produced a couple great children's book author/illustrators (including my very, very favorite, Doris Burns), with the latest being from Olympia-- the excellent Nikki McClure. She is famous for her intricate, yet deceptively simple looking paper cut illustrations in her titles for very young children. Her first attempts at paper cut illustrations gave birth to a little, homegrown book that was distributed locally in 1996. Apple is the new reprint of that effort, now available to the masses! It is lovely, and begins with the play on words: "Fall"... as you see an apple falling from a tree. The book continues with a single word on each page, documenting the life of the apple as it goes through autumn and is composted into the ground before giving new life the following spring. The book would make a great springboard to inspire budding artists or writers with the art of paper-cutting. Here is a great little tutorial on that. The little write ups in the back about the life of apples and about composting are just as excellent as this juicy, little morsel of a book itself and I highly recommend it for your early reading pleasure.